


The Price of Devotion

by shadowshrike



Category: Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates
Genre: Friends With Benefits, M/M, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-18
Updated: 2018-09-18
Packaged: 2019-07-14 00:46:36
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,545
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16029512
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shadowshrike/pseuds/shadowshrike
Summary: It's a poorly kept secret that the crown prince pursues his most loyal soldiers when the strain becomes too much to bear. Even so, Kaze never considered their relationship to cross into that realm. Not until a private dinner takes an unexpected turn.





	The Price of Devotion

**Author's Note:**

> This was meant to be a super short one-shot of just porn between working on my longer fics, but somehow became nearly 4000 words of feelings with a little smut mixed in. Just an extra warning in case the tags weren't clear: if you're looking for a cute romantic relationship, this isn't the fic for you. All you will find here is two men, married to their work, who share deep bonds and high sexual compatibility.

As a ninja, Kaze had never drank much back in Hoshido. His duties as a spy and protector required him to keep a clear head. However, those same duties also required he serve royalty’s requests to the letter, so when Prince Xander insisted he have a glass of wine during their private dinner in the prince’s quarters, Kaze couldn’t refuse.

It was good. Better than he could appreciate, really. Xander smiled when he said so, a private smile that reached the intense eyes beneath his furrowed brow.

“And you are better than I can appreciate,” he murmured. “But I would like to try.”

As Kaze finished his glass, the hand that had given it to him fell to rest on his thigh. Xander’s strong thumb stroked along the worn fabric, its subtle sensuality sending Kaze’s heart into a frenzy in his chest.

He hadn’t anticipated this. Sharing a meal with a leader, a friend, even a paragon, those were things he could wrap his head around. But the crown prince riding a hand down his thigh, the other guiding Kaze’s glass down to the table, was too much to think about. Later, he would understand - for weeks, there’d been quiet whispers of Kaze being Prince Xander’s new favorite and questions of how long it had been since the prince took one of his soldiers for ‘a break’. Now, all Kaze’s mind could process in its wine-clouded state was the buzz under his skin wherever Xander touched him.

It was wholly inappropriate given their stations. Perhaps it was that which made him want more.

Kaze couldn’t bring himself to move, but neither did he refuse the prince’s courting. He sat there in stoic silence, allowing bolder advances from Xander, letting him know his presence wasn’t unwanted without saying a word. The alcohol made these little intimacies easier to bear.

A palm sliding up his back to massage his shoulder. An arm cradling him to keep him flush against a wall of warm muscle. Fingertips swiping wisps of hair behind his ears. Heated breathing followed by a tender kiss to the base of his jaw.

That one made him shudder.

“Are you alright…?” Xander pulled away to look Kaze in the eye, far enough that Kaze missed his warmth. 

Strong fingers continued their quiet mapping of his fair features, and confounded by their tenderness, Kaze struggled to remember both the Nohrian language and how to move his tongue. “Yes. Of course, Prince Xander.”

That must have been the wrong answer, because the prince’s lustful touches stilled. Kaze shuddered again, suddenly aware of an ache blooming deep inside that had been kept quiet by Xander’s constant attentions. A plea for more stayed contained by lips well-used to holding back his needs from the likes of royalty.

“Are you?” Xander asked again.

Kaze intended to say yes.

“Not anymore,” the wine whispered using his voice. When Xander’s hand withdrew entirely, leaving him cold, Kaze continued with a third desperate shudder, “...because you’ve stopped touching me.”

That was a problem not left unsolved for long. Immediately, calloused hands resumed their exploration, emboldened by the soft-spoken permission. This time they traced the dip of his clavicle and nudged the gap of his gi open further. While one dared inside to gently brush sensitive skin, filling Kaze with an electric heat that raced downwards, another came up again to cup his cheek. 

“May I have this, then?” Xander’s fingerpad coaxed Kaze’s lips apart.

“Yes,” Kaze breathed against his skin.

The speed that Xander’s lips overtook his own was enough to impress even a ninja. Yearning yet fulfilled, he could feel the prince’s low groan vibrate through everywhere they touched. The kiss was exactly how Kaze knew him as a man - powerful and full of passion. He sought out what he wanted with every fiber of his being, letting nothing stand in his way, and right now, all he wanted was Kaze.

When their lips parted, breath still mingling while a hand danced along Kaze’s chest, Xander spoke again, “How was that?”

“Good,” Kaze answered once he recovered from how deeply the crown prince drank of him. “Very good.”

That irritating frown graced Xander’s face again. “Only good? Is that why you didn’t kiss me back?”

“Kiss you...back? My apologies, but I don’t understand,” Kaze responded with a matching frown. “It would be wrong to impose my desires upon you.”

“But I have imposed mine upon you,” Xander argued.

“You are a prince. It is your right, and you were still kind enough to let me refuse.”

Xander hummed and lifted Kaze’s chin to meet him, grazing their lips together again. “Then, as a prince, I ask for your imposition. No…,” he claimed another kiss, “...I crave it.”

The world spun around them as Xander continued his assault of Kaze’s lips, crashing together again and again, coaxing him to return those volleys as he might bait a sword swing during their sparring. Breathing quickened and eyes fluttered shut. The onslaught of kisses mounted ever more fervent as Kaze’s wine-addled mind slowed his own weak confirmations of mutual lust. 

“Is this a dream?” he wondered.  His eyelids sagged every time he opened them to look at the handsome prince busied with devouring him. Xander’s teeth drew out Kaze’s bottom lip. “I can’t keep my eyes open.”

Something that might have been a groan of frustration reached his unfocused ears. “You’re too tired for this,” Xander observed. “It must have been the wine.”

“I’ve never drank wine before,” Kaze confirmed. 

He let his body sag against the security of Xander’s arms. They curled around him in a comforting squeeze, then he was suddenly in the air. Or at least, Kaze assumed he was in the air; he couldn’t open his eyes but he no longer felt a chair beneath him. He didn’t mind. Xander was warm and strong, his arms the safest shelter Kaze had ever known. Sleeping here would be a nice change from thin mats on the hard ground.

His last thought was of being laid upon a cloud. He wondered with a smile if this was what flying felt like.

* * *

 

Waking for Kaze was slower in the dim light of Xander’s quarters than within thin tent walls which barely blocked the sun. He’d never slept so deeply, even coiled around his favorite pillow. Drowsy eyes opened to a dark room he didn’t recognize, sunken into something soft as pegasus down. It dipped sharply towards his right side where someone shared his resting space.

Still as the stone walls of Krakenberg, Kaze waited for his eyes to adjust to the darkness. He recognized the face beside him but not the expression - Xander’s strong features and perfect curls, loosened by the peace of sleep. Stress still weighed on his brow, but his eyes and lips were gentled. He looked kind. A little sad. Like a proud father whose wife was no longer at home and whose children had all left to pursue fruitful lives of their own.

Kaze didn’t realize he’d reached out comforting fingers to Xander’s cheek until dark eyes opened to meet his own.

“Morning already?” Xander mumbled. He shifted up in the bed, letting both Kaze’s shocked hand and his silken sheets fall away from bare skin. Only in noticing how the prince’s pale, broad chest glinted in the faint light did Kaze realize his own body was still fully clothed.

“I...I believe so, Prince Xander,” Kaze responded, staring at the hands folded in his lap rather than the man splayed out with regal ease beside him. “My apologies for rising late and...ah...resting in your bed…?”

Xander stretched, the sheer volume of muscle that rippled through his meticulously honed body impossible for Kaze to ignore. Hazy memories of how cozy it was to be cradled by those arms floated to the top of his mind. He prayed it was too dark for even Nohrian eyes to see his blush.

The prince settled back down and said, “Do not apologize. I’m happy to share my bed with you.” The words hung in the air, Xander’s rich voice and memories of the previous evening leaving Kaze all too aware of their suggestive overtones. Xander chuckled - so much for the hope of Kaze’s rosy cheeks going unnoticed. “That is to say, it’s my fault for insisting on the wine last night. I hope you’re not feeling unwell?”

“Not at all. I slept better than I have since I pledged my service to you...to your army,” Kaze corrected, still studying his thumbs. “Perhaps I will have to try wine as a sleep aid again.”

“Only if I am there to watch over you. That wine took a heavier toll on you than I anticipated,” Xander said, enveloping Kaze’s hands with his much larger one. Silence blanketed them, both men staring where their skin met.

“...may I ask you a question?” Kaze murmured.

“Of course.”

Kaze’s brow creased and he looked away from Xander, towards the heavy drapes shrouding the sun. “Perhaps it is presumptive, but...how often do you do...this?”

“This?” Xander squeezed his hands gently. Kaze didn’t turn to look.

“Yes. Inviting others for...carnal relations.”

The sheets rustled as the prince sat up straighter to brush a stubborn lock of hair from Kaze’s forehead. “Does it bother you to think I’ve been with others?” Xander wondered aloud. “Have you never lain with another partner?”

Kaze’s muted head shake knocked the hair back into his eyes. “I’m merely trying to understand my purpose here. Nohrian courtship is foreign to me, as are the practices of your royalty. I want to fulfill the role you seek of me, but I’m not certain if this is a typical arrangement to manage your physical needs, or something else entirely.”

Xander laughed, dark and breathy, “Dedicated to your duties as always. That is what I admire most about you, Kaze.” He curled a finger beneath the ninja’s chin, forcing violet eyes to meet intense carmine ones that made Kaze’s skin feel ten sizes too small. “It’s been months since I last attempted to woo one of my most loyal men for an evening of release. Finding those who might be willing to warm the bed of a crown prince without the concern of blackmail is harder than you might expect. I’ve been wanting to share this for a long time with you, but I had to be certain you wouldn’t be repulsed by the offer first.”

“You wanted to release your stress...with me,” Kaze whispered, disbelieving. He could not claim he was free of his own fleeting fantasies regarding the golden-haired, imperious warrior-prince laying next to him. Wicked thoughts that had remained concealed between himself and his hand under the cover of darkness now rushed back with the dawn.

A one-night stand. Their need for closeness realized in a singular, heated moment to make the war more bearable. To be offered this ephemeral experience with a crown prince was the greatest honor a servant such as himself could receive.

That was why the heaviness of Kaze’s heart confused him.

He would never be arrogant enough to expect love from royalty, much less a man as important as Xander. And he didn’t fear that the prince would be a poor lover. If anything, the way Xander’s voice demanded submission and touch left goosebumps in its wake convinced Kaze he would be the one unable to last to the prince’s liking. He should be overjoyed to be welcomed by a man so skilled in bedroom as well as the battlefield.

There was something else that felt wrong about this arrangement. His mind wandered back to the prince’s sleeping face and the twinge of longing there.

Kaze couldn’t hold the thought long enough to determine what bothered him about that expression. The small smile that touched Xander’s lips made him forget everything but the tenderness in the prince’s eyes in that moment. It reminded Kaze of the times he had seen King Sumeragi stare at Queen Mikoto during one of their sunrise strolls, full of an adoration deeper than any Kaze deserved.

From his many travels, the ninja had grown used to politely smiling while being obsessed over, as though the women who acted like starving dogs eying a juicy steak when they spoke with him did not bother him. It was easy to be an object. When they looked at his face and found something inexplicably attractive, Kaze could rationalize that they only saw the surface, and they were entitled to whatever incorrect opinions they might have about his physical attractiveness.

Xander didn’t look at him as they did. There was warmth in his gaze, one that penetrated far beneath the surface of Kaze’s appearance. He was cherishing his friend; rejoicing in knowing one another as only brothers-in-arms could. The unseemly contentment welling up from the prince’s kindness drew out a true smile Kaze had not worn in years. Xander’s own tiny smile widened in return, knuckles grazing the corners of Kaze’s upturned lips.

“I’ve needed a release, now more than ever. These small moments are all I have. I would like them to be with you,” Xander confirmed.

Kaze paused, uselessly mulling over the matter before finding the courage to dare another question of the prince, “If you need a release...why did you not last night?”

“Pardon?”

“I said you could take as you wished. But you didn’t. Instead of taking care of your needs, you laid me in your bed, fully-clothed, to sleep,” Kaze said. His frown returned, scouring his memory for what he might have missed. “I know you would not take advantage of a sleeping man, but you hesitated even before then, when I didn’t kiss you as you desired.”

Xander scoffed, “If I only wanted a warm body, do you think I would go through all the trouble of sharing dinner with you? I assure you, I could take matters into my own hands easily enough if that was all I require. I do not choose my lovers lightly, even if only for a night.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to doubt your intentions, Prince Xander. A man such as you must have many suitors…” Kaze’s statement trailed off.

Xander  _ didn’t _ have suitors. Kaze remembered when he first joined the ranks of the Nohrians, thinking it how odd it was that a crown prince kept completely to himself. Even High Prince Ryoma entertained the occasional romantic entanglement or night of passion. Xander, on the other hand, scarcely spared a moment for anyone that wasn’t related to the war effort. For such a devoted man to his country and its people, he gave little thought to his own relationships.

It clicked. What he had seen in Xander while he slept was not longing - it was loneliness. Ever responsible, ever distant, ever the paragon knight his country demanded of him, the prince never had a moment to lower his guard. His affections were always expressed with a level of indirectness that seemed more at home in Hoshido than Nohr. He watched over his people without expecting anything in return, even hiding his kind acts so they wouldn’t feel indebted to him.

That was why he had insisted Kaze kiss him back. That was why he wouldn’t chase a quick climax once the ninja was clearly too tired to last long. That was why he had watched over Kaze while he slept. None of it was about sex, not entirely anyway. It was about intimacy. Xander wanted to be human for a moment and be loved for all he provided; something he knew was beyond his right to ask for directly. What safer way to quiet the need for appreciation in a commander’s heart than to use a soldier’s loyalty to convince yourself that he loved you?

A pang squeezed Kaze’s heart. The crown prince, so brave and selfless, should not feel this way. He should not need to ration scraps of false love extracted during these one-night-stands to be his strength. Not when Kaze overflowed with fondness for Xander and could give it freely. 

Kaze was already married to his work and bound by his failures. He had no dreams of a spouse or children anymore. To perform this act as many times as necessary to repay the many debts he owed Xander would only be natural. Not as though it was some great sacrifice to lay with the crown prince. Selfishly, Kaze wanted more of those strong hands and predatory eyes laying claim to him.

Invigorated by his realization that he had something important to give the man staring at him with sleep-soaked sentiment, Kaze locked eyes with Xander and grasped the hand stroking his cheek. He pressed it to his lips. Then, deliberately, Kaze walked devoted kisses up the length of his arm until he could seize Xander’s mouth in a passionate embrace he wouldn’t have thought himself capable of mere hours ago.

Xander fought for breath through a lush chuckle when they parted, “As always, you are full of surprises, Kaze. You delight in catching me off-guard. Where did this sudden change of heart come from?”

“I think I understand now what you need,” Kaze replied. He nestled himself closer to Xander, stealing a kiss more confidently met this time. “And I want to give it to you.”

“We must rise to attend to our schedules soon…” came the prince’s protest. A mere formality, given how he was already diving back in for more of Kaze’s lips.

“I won’t keep you long. I need to leave something for next time.”

Xander’s hand stopped with a finger in the knot of Kaze’s gi. “...I apologize if I wasn’t clear but…”

“I’m not implying that I expect a relationship,” Kaze clarified, finishing untying what Xander had started. His clothing slipped from his shoulders and pooled on the bed behind him. “But I do insist we do this again. Whenever you feel that ache, I will share this with you. No more scouring the army for potential partners. No more worries about blackmail. No more wine.”

Xander hummed, trailing a finger down the naked flesh he’d spent so much effort trying to see. “...and what do you get out of it?”

“Helping you,” Kaze answered. 

“That’s all?”

Kaze tapped a finger to his lips. “I suppose regularly having a dashing prince with the body of a classical Nestrian sculpture could be another possible motivation.”

“You’re teasing,” Xander accused and nipped along an earlobe. He growled in Kaze’s ear, throaty and riled, ducking his chin to bite into the smooth, untouched flesh of his neck as a silent mark of claim, careful not to suck hard enough to leave a lasting bruise. Kaze moaned all the same. His body arched into the prince’s hunger, comfortably supplicant to Xander’s demands of him.

He couldn’t resist another jab to stoke the flames. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Prince Xander. I’m merely a humble servant seeking to please his lord…”

“And please me you shall,” Xander rumbled in return, throwing the sheets from Kaze’s body.

He crawled over his bedmate, pinning the slighter man with the sheer weight of his frame. Kaze tested his bonds and shuddered. Xander’s arms were like a steel cage atop him, utterly unyielding as they demanded Kaze’s body splayed to become a feast for the prince’s lips. He suckled on each nipple, drawing out soft cries from a man unused to erotic touch, then rolled the sensitive nubs beneath calloused fingertips while his mouth danced ever lower. Kaze’s hips rose and gasps quickened as Xander neared the hardness laid in the open for the prince to admire. 

Or rather, they tried to. Xander’s embrace was a prison Kaze had no desire to leave and kept him firmly planted to the bed. He could not rise to meet the prince’s ministrations, nor give any of his own. Xander’s tongue flicked beneath the head of Kaze’s cock, and the man bit into his lip to silence an impassioned moan. The prince smirked. 

Fed by Kaze’s taunts, Xander had become hellbent on teasing out every obscene whimper and groan defied by a ninja’s nature. He held no pretenses of nobility as he mouthed at his subordinate’s length. The profane display jolted through Kaze, and he found he lacked the strength to look away from a crown prince sucking him like his dick held the key to winning this war. Desperation built in his belly and behind his eyelids, rocking his hips until they were sure to bruise against Xander’s hands and catching so many howls of pleasure in his throat he feared it might burst. Kaze’s fingers clawed into the iron of muscular arms, begging for a too-imminent release he had no control over.

“P-Prince Xander...nn...what a--ah..--about you…?” he spat out when he could find his voice.

A mistake. Xander suddenly pulled off him, the air of the room too cold and unsatisfying against his slick cock after the warm friction of the prince’s mouth. Kaze hissed out a curse, and his partner chuckled.

“Language,” he chided, crawling up the length of Kaze’s chest for another kiss. “I wanted you to be comfortable before we addressed my needs. My restraint is often...lacking, in these situations.”

Kaze could be an immensely patient man. He could wait for hours without moving, scout a person’s habits for weeks or even months without a word of complaint. But being ripped from the edge of orgasm so suddenly erased any inkling he might have to do more talking.

Twisting his leg around Xander’s, he grunted and slammed his weight up and over as hard as he could, flipping their positions. Kaze could feel the prince throb beneath him. One hand drove straight down to find the heavy thickness between his legs and begin stroking, while the other tangled in golden curls for a demanding kiss.

“Forgive my forwardness, milord, but I think you still have entirely too much restraint,” Kaze panted into his mouth.

The thrilled light of challenge glowed in Xander’s eyes. He didn’t try to overpower Kaze, but instead reached down to mirror the ninja’s movements, aided by the saliva now dripping onto the both of them. His free hand dragged Kaze down on top of him. Their skin, covered in a light sheen of sweat, slid smoothly across each other. Kaze breathed deeply Xander’s natural scent combined with the musk of their exertion, and, dizzy with lust, rutted harder into the palm holding him fast. The primal want between them was too strong to resist.

Kaze longed to get the prince off first, as it should be, but his body longed more strongly for its own release. Their flush bodies writhed together in a frenzied coupling, mounting higher and hotter with each pitched moan and choked gasp, until it exploded in a full-bodied groan that wracked Kaze’s body from the tip of his curling toes to the fingers clawing at Xander’s vast chest. Sweat and semen coated his hand between them, a shameless display of his desire. 

Xander only jerked more violently against Kaze when his hand stopped moving, through the sticky mess and into the crook of the ninja’s abs. He clearly needed this more than anything now that Kaze had finished. Light-headed, the ninja struggled to catch his breath while Xander did as a prince was wont to do and took matters into his own hands, using him with the same abandon he might a well-paid prostitute. He let go of Kaze’s softening prick, instead firmly kneading his ass with both hands and rapidly thrusting against his slick body with animalistic greed. It wasn’t long before he too was shaking, hard cock pressing against Kaze’s stomach with every pulse, the result of his long-pent up need plainly evident.

They panted in the silence that followed, laying spent upon one another.

“You’re...very skilled, milord,” Kaze mumbled against Xander’s chest. He pushed himself off the prince with a disgusted groan, the bodily fluids now exposed to the room drying into an entirely unpleasant mixture.

Xander expelled a breathless laugh, “I should be saying that to you. You made me forget myself. I failed in the task I had set myself to.”

“Shameful,” Kaze teased, smirking back at him. It was not his place to say such things to a prince, but in their shared bliss, anything other than simple honesty felt gauche between them. “A Hoshidan ninja besting the Crown Prince of Nohr.”

“A baseless rumor that no one in their right mind would believe,” Xander chided. There was the crown prince Kaze knew, disheveled and winded but still stern. Only the twinkle in his eye gave any hint of the inner levity Kaze loved to witness.

Returning to the comfortable role of servant rather than friend or lover, Kaze nodded along seriously. “Patently ridiculous. My dreams must be getting the better of me.”

“If those are your dreams, then I have much work ahead of me. ”

“Oh?”

Xander leaned over, placing a chaste kiss on Kaze’s forehead. He pushed himself out of the bed to head for the bath. “Yes. It’s my duty to impart to you what a crown prince is truly capable of. There is much your dream did not account for.”

“Then I devote myself to your tutelage, Prince Xander,” Kaze replied, bowing his head as humbly as his prone position allowed him. “It is always an honor to have you as a partner.”

“The feeling is mutual, my friend.” 

Xander hesitated in the doorway. He closed his eyes, hand fisting against the doorframe, as if a cloak of dark thoughts threatened to strangle him with every step taken away from the bed. “I...hope to partner with you many more times before we part ways.”

The finality in those words ‘before we part ways’ ached in Kaze’s breast.

He wanted to promise that Xander would never lose him and break the dominion isolation held over the crown prince. But war liked to make a liar of those who spoke in absolutes. To pledge an eternity and not deliver would be an even greater dishonor than all those already piled against his name. 

There was nothing Kaze could do but share his body and soul until the world saw fit to rip them apart, hoping it would dispel the prince’s loneliness a little longer. A bandaid on a gaping wound, perhaps, but better than standing idly by as a man he admired bled out behind closed doors. Kaze swore to himself many years ago he would never be a mere bystander again.

“We will,” Kaze confirmed, mustering every ounce of conviction he could find. “Wherever life may take us, the bond between us will never fail. I swear to you.”

A beat of silence. Then, Xander nodded. His chin raised, the pride of nobility radiating from him once again as Kaze’s devotion touched him as it had so many times in the past. Strength from the strength of others. 

“Then I hold you to your oath, Kaze. Together, we shall usher in a prosperous future for our countries, wherever our roads may take us,” Xander decreed.

Kaze smiled. “Together, my prince.”

  
  
  
  



End file.
